tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-637156342522799722015-03-30T12:02:14.427-04:00Flotsam of the MindParenting, photography, and all the other flotsam in my mind.Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.comBlogger414125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-25992763033019465352015-03-17T15:06:00.002-04:002015-03-17T15:06:34.203-04:00Girl Power: Because Music HelpsMy daughter and I have spent a lot of one-on-one time together the last few weeks. Outside events and physical ailments and injuries prevented her from skiing on the weekends with her dad and brother and caused her to miss a couple days of school.
Unfortunately, we didn't create many good memories during this time. Her series of mysterious physical ailments and a badly sprained ankle meant that Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-26697464661293189902015-03-11T10:00:00.000-04:002015-03-11T10:00:04.313-04:00Finding the Good in the BadI date myself with this reference, but I've had The Facts of Life theme song stuck in my head the last couple days.
"You take the good,
You take the bad,
You take them both and there you have
the facts of life."
(apologies for the ear worm)
It's been that sort of week around here. In the last few days, my kids have experienced some of their highest highs and some of their lowest lows. I've Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-32135238522109143902015-03-04T12:10:00.001-05:002015-03-04T12:10:20.708-05:00On Bad Days, Add TacosMost days, I feel like a pretty good mom. I'm not going to win any awards, and I certainly don't think I have all the answers, but I find that a combination of organization, empathy, and common sense usually does the job.
Then there are the other days.
Days when I'm tired. When I'm frustrated. When a leaking roof and cracked windshield, a sprained ankle and special diet, and yet another Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-3311488554041036242015-02-18T13:11:00.000-05:002015-03-04T12:14:42.362-05:00Why Photography: Looking for BeautyJust over three years ago, I started this blog as a way to improve my writing. It also quickly became a place to share my ever-growing interest in photography.
I'm bringing those experiences together again today by starting a blog on the Sea Green Photography website. If you like what I have to say here, please follow along there as well. Add me to your blog feed, or select "Subscribe by e-mail"Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-8977996568376419162015-02-05T12:26:00.000-05:002015-02-05T13:03:36.572-05:00The Hallway as Metaphor
I made my son hang out with me.
It was an unseasonably warm winter Sunday in January. My daughter had a friend over, and my son was bored. It was foggy, and I decided to walk with my camera on a nearby beach. I told my son he was coming with me. No excuses.
He half-heartedly grumbled for a while, but he went. By the time we were walking to the beach, he was just yanking my chain, complaining Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-8071346211000224462015-02-04T12:49:00.000-05:002015-02-04T12:49:22.064-05:00What I've Been DoingNo, I'm not trapped under a pile of snow, although I have been feeling a bit like a shut-in for the past week. Three school snow days and a sick day in a seven-day period means that my children have been home a lot. I don't write well without silence and flow, two things that are quite absent when children are present.
But that's not the only reason I've been quiet. I've been busy working on Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-7683076091102909602015-01-05T22:33:00.000-05:002015-02-05T11:57:14.703-05:00Making Greg Heffly DisappearThis is what it's come to--I may ban books. Or at least hide them for a while.
We are a family of readers. On most days, my chief tidiness complaint is that my house looks like it's suffered a library explosion. Books and magazines are littered everywhere. Everywhere a child was last reading one, at least.
This is a wonderful problem to have. The problem is that I keep shelving the same books Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-69127115752544069912014-12-16T15:34:00.000-05:002015-01-05T21:50:02.234-05:00We Do Christmas TreesAt the risk of bragging, our family has mastered one aspect of Christmas decorating. We have the whole Christmas tree thing down.
But only through trial and error.
2007 - We had a 13-month-old.
When we moved to New England with two little kids, I insisted we go to a tree farm and choose our tree while it was still in the ground. This is what New Englanders do. It would create a lifetime of Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-3929240478830439762014-12-15T11:00:00.000-05:002014-12-15T11:00:16.305-05:00The Anxiety that is DecemberThere's no good reason for it, but it's there. The tightness in my chest. And the fatigue. And the general feeling of overwhelm. I have become inexplicably anxious this December.
It's silly really. My family is healthy. We are financially secure. My husband has a good job and works very hard at it, so I don't have to. I'm excited (and not at all overwhelmed) at the opportunity to start my own Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-57153786920297572472014-12-03T09:42:00.000-05:002014-12-03T09:42:21.608-05:00Friends: The Intimacy of the MundaneI'm a lucky girl. I have wonderful friends from each era of my life--from my hometown, college, and law school, and from the four different areas of the country where I've lived since earning my last degree. The problem is that most of them are so damn far away.
Even though I don't see my friends often, we are still close. We can pick up our relationship right where we last left off and, if I Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-26222886329976297362014-11-24T10:09:00.001-05:002014-11-24T16:51:54.037-05:00Control the Message: Take Flattering Self-PortraitsIf you hate the way you look in photos, your problem is that you're not controlling the message. Take the photo yourself.
I frequently change my Facebook profile picture, and I take every photo myself. I control what's created and I decide to post it, so I'm guaranteed to like it.
Admittedly, I vainly take a new photograph when I return home from the hair salon, because I will never style my Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-67663172005202051572014-11-11T23:05:00.000-05:002014-11-11T23:05:17.471-05:00Let You in on a SecretI'm sitting alone, sipping vodka and munching two-year-old Thin Mints that I found in the back of the freezer. In other words, I'm feeling confessional.
I've been trying to hold on to a secret for a while now. I wanted to wait and have a Big Reveal. I wanted to be knee-deep in the hoopla of my Big Reveal sometime in early 2015. Even in my confessional mood, I'm struggling whether to share with Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-58753133986859495852014-11-03T22:40:00.001-05:002014-11-04T10:57:59.692-05:00Why My Recipe Box is Better Than YoursI went pretty far out on a limb with dinner tonight. I cooked something that my mom made when I was a kid. I remember liking it even when I was a picky eater, so I thought I'd give salmon patties a whirl. They were not well-received.
While I enjoyed my meal, the best part for me was telling the kids the story of my recipe box.
When I first lived on my own, my mom gave me a recipe box full ofCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-35161420946174941832014-10-28T19:30:00.000-04:002014-10-28T19:30:00.452-04:00Passion or Addiction?When I forced myself to go to bed at midnight last night, I felt like a kid who'd been put to bed immediately after opening Christmas presents. I was too amped up to sleep and dreamed all night about what I'd been doing before bed.
I read somewhere that dreaming of a favored activity might be a sign of addiction. There's some chance it's an addiction, but I prefer the term passion. I was editingCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-16475153747268379792014-10-22T14:02:00.001-04:002014-10-22T14:02:24.977-04:00What We HaveIt's none of my business, but I always want to ask.
Every time I get to know a parent of a single child, I wonder how it came to be. Did they always intend to have only one? Or did other factors--health, fertility, timing--decide for them? It's not the result, but the decision-making that I find interesting.
I don't think of these families as oddities. I find them familiar. I am an only child, Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-41353091542151295122014-10-14T14:59:00.001-04:002014-10-14T15:00:21.097-04:00Dancing in the StreetsI had no idea what I was getting into. When my son asked, I told him what I knew: "It's a thing in the city with music and friends. There might be a parade."
All true, but not nearly descriptive enough.
The "thing" was PRONK, the Providence Honk Festival. According to the PRONK website, PRONK offers "a heartfelt antidote to mainstream culture by inviting people from all walks of life to Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-22237144865780502312014-10-09T12:00:00.000-04:002014-10-09T12:00:11.806-04:00Often Lost and Rarely FoundI was seven, and I still remember the indignity of it.
When I was in elementary school, teachers communicated with parents by sending papers home with us. No one trusted us to actually get the papers home or give them to our parents, so they pinned the papers to us. We could be trusted with straight pins, but not memo delivery. At dismissal, a flock of kids would stream to the buses bearing Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-60151686855572103022014-10-06T21:24:00.001-04:002014-10-06T21:24:29.219-04:00Tour Around Blogland: Meet My FriendsPrepare yourself. You'll learn a little bit about me today, but more importantly, I'm going to introduce you to two people you need to meet.
Lisa at My So Called Glamorous Life nominated me to participate in a Tour Around Blogland. If you haven't visited Lisa's blog, please do. Like me, she writes about the everyday. Unlike me, she writes some very thought-provoking and eye-opening pieces about Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-19061186894753457682014-09-29T11:33:00.000-04:002014-10-01T11:34:26.705-04:00In Defense of School PortraitsSeveral years ago, my husband stumbled upon my dirty little secret. Strangely enough, it was on full display at my grandmother's house.
If you go to my grandma's basement and look to the left of the piano, you will see all of my school portraits hung in chronological order. Starting with my red and blue kindergarten dress (marred by the sweater mom intended for me to remove before the photo), itCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-68163772114549926562014-09-11T12:01:00.000-04:002014-09-29T10:21:41.652-04:00Where the Magic HappensIf, like me, you misspent hours of your youth watching MTV's celebrity home show Cribs, you know there were standard moments that appeared in each show: the refrigerator shot, the expensive car display, the tasteless bling of the nouveau riche. If the celebrity guide was male, you also got the same wink-wink nod-nod joke in every tour. As each guy showed you his master bedroom, he couldn't resistCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-81162890110941190602014-09-10T20:56:00.000-04:002014-09-10T22:55:47.409-04:00When the Blog Fails MeI have never considered myself a writer. Never dreamed of writing a book, never kept a journal, never wrote a poem that wasn't assigned and hideous. Yet I write here with no intention of making money at it. Why?
I started this blog when I struggled to write a personal essay. After years of neglecting them, I no longer had the skills to write well easily. The blog began as writing practice. I hadCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-57903452297466202062014-09-04T22:50:00.000-04:002014-09-04T22:50:30.754-04:00White Boy Can't Jump, But Have You Seen His Backstroke?Life lessons are everywhere if you just pay attention. I got one in the PE office at school today.
I was speaking to a teacher about scheduling after school tennis. In expressing my son's disappointment at being on the wait list, I began to say, "He's not an athletic kid, and he was really disappointed this didn't work out because he finally had a sport he wanted to play."
The other PE teacher,Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-90903699283873008342014-08-31T16:46:00.000-04:002014-08-31T16:46:44.054-04:00Why I Lied and Shattered My Daughter's DreamsMy daughter is a gymnast. She is also a soccer player, lacrosse player, pianist, tennis player, and soon-to-be swimmer. She's also seven.
She has a lot of energy and a lot of interests. She wants to do everything. But if you ask her, she'll tell you she's a gymnast.
She decided she was a gymnast--not just someone who takes gymnastics--last summer at camp. She became very dedicated and was Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-91306255007168846582014-08-13T22:17:00.000-04:002014-08-13T22:17:03.710-04:00Less Colorful for Their AbsenceIn February 1997, I had been working at my first post-graduate, salaried job for six months. My parents were coming to visit me in Atlanta, and--because I finally could--I wanted to treat them to a nice evening out. I took them to my favorite restaurant and bought tickets to see John Denver at the Fox Theatre.
As a child of the 70s, I grew up listening to John Denver. His Greatest Hits album wasCynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63715634252279972.post-41674244317733284592014-08-12T21:21:00.000-04:002014-08-12T21:21:10.655-04:00What My Kid Can DoPicture a "My Child was Student of the Month" sticker on a minivan bumper, because I'm about to brag. My kid has done something extraordinary--something I was convinced he'd never do. Overcoming the handicaps of maternal coddling and conflict avoidance, my ten-year-old now hangs up his wet towel after every shower.
I know. It's amazing, isn't it?
And that's not all. When he hangs up that wet Cynthia at Flotsam of the Mindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10022438268157519407noreply@blogger.com0